Bangladesh offered Wednesday to sell cheaper quality medicines to the Philippines which it said could bring down local medicine cost by 35 to 40 percent.

The offer was made as the three-day Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Expo 2010 opened Wednesday at the SMX Convention Center in Parañaque City. The exhibit showcases some 14 Bangladeshi pharmaceutical companies which are willing to tie up with local manufacturers to enable their medicines to gain entry into the Philippine market which they said could bring down the cost of local drugs.

“We believe we’ll find a place in the Philippine market. Bangladesh and the Philippines have bilateral trade. Both countries have many products for exports to offer to each other,” Bangladeshi Ambassador to the Philippines Ikhtiar M. Chowdhury said.

“I believe in our case, the pharmaceutical industry, you’ll find it very competitive,” he said.

According to the envoy, medicines produced in Bangladesh – from paracetamol to cancer medicines – are cheaper due to their minimal production cost, adding that they also produce their own raw materials.

“That makes the product cost of our medicines cheaper, and it follows World Health Organization (WHO) good manufacturing practices,” he said. “If you compare prices of medicines in Bangladesh to those in Philippine markets, they are at least 35 to 40 percent cheaper.”

Department of Health (DoH) Secretary Esperanza I. Cabral welcomed the new player in the local drug industry, saying Bangladesh will become another major player in reducing the prices of drugs in the market, one of the current thrusts of the government.

She said the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is ready and well-equipped to test and check for the quality of these medicines to ensure that the consuming public is safe.

Dhaka-based General Pharmaceuticals Ltd. International marketing manager Dr. Ziad Rahman, in a separate interview with reporters, noted that the Philippines has good legislation when it comes to health policies but suggested that the guidelines for doing business here still have room for improvement.

“There is good legislation, but when we apply we can’t find everything in one piece– we submit and go back another day. The guidelines could also be more elaborative,” he said, adding that the Philippines could also improve on its processing time.

“It takes a long time as compared to other Asean countries, especially Vietnam,” he said.

According to Bangladesh Association of Pharmaceutical Industry immediate past president Mr. S. M. Shafiuzzaman, Bangladesh has invested on its pharmaceutical sector, introducing state-of-the-art facilities and producing quality but affordable medicines knowing that health care is among the biggest problems being encountered around the world.

The Bangladeshi pharmaceutical industry has total market size of US$830 million in 2009 and is the largest white-collar labor-intensive employment sector in that country.

He said out of 250 pharmaceutical companies in Bangladesh, almost 100 are exporting their products to 76 countries in Europe, South and Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Americas. (With a report from Jenny F. Manongdo)